Sorcerer’s Handbook

The “charging area” on the 61st and 62nd floors is the designated dining area of the Transcendence Temple, and no delivery service is available, so Ashe and the others had to come to the charging area for meals.

Although they had been here for two days, Ashe still found it hard to accept this dining environment – the uniform sound of eating, with no ambient noise in the air, made Ashe feel like a social drifter sitting in an internet café to play games overnight, only to find himself surrounded by nearby company employees working overtime due to a power outage.

The atmosphere was so solemn and serious that Ashe didn’t dare to take food from Igor’s plate over the past two days.

Another thing that Ashe found hard to accept was the fact that they were literally charging.

It’s necessary to describe the appearance of the Transcendence followers here – unlike the ascetic look of the Tribulation Fire followers, Transcendence followers have a futuristic feel. With silver-white metallic prostheses attached to many parts of their bodies such as the nape, ears, spine, and elbows, equipped with glowing lines of breathing lights, combined with their blue-and-white uniforms and skin with lightning runes, they look like warriors time-traveled back from a Doomsday future.

These prostheses have their functions, but they consume electrical energy, so mealtime is also charging time. There are many charging cables under the tables, and as soon as they sit down, they automatically start charging, with electricity running through their bodies – this is even more important than eating.

Ashe, who only ate without charging, felt like someone eating instant noodles in an internet café without using the computer.

In contrast to Ashe’s discomfort, Igor and Harvey seemed quite at ease.

The Con Artist, of course, could joke around even if tossed into hell, so this small setting was nothing to him. As for Harvey, as a ruthless person who could eat and sleep among a pile of corpses, Ashe couldn’t think of any scene in the world that could affect the necromancer’s appetite.

Ashe and the others were no longer surprised that any disciple could become a spokesperson. Igor asked, “Can we first tour the internal situation or achievements of the Transcendence Temple before deciding whether to formally follow the Demi-God?”

The middle-aged woman immediately shook her head, then said after a moment of silence, “No, if you want the Transcendence Temple’s protection, you must attend the evening worship and complete the Ritual of following, striving together with us for the transcendental consciousness. Otherwise, you are still considered travelers.”

“Understood,” said the Con Artist. “We’ll seriously consider it within the remaining time. By the way, do you have any needs? If we continue our trade, we might be able to bring you the materials you desire.”

At this point, the middle-aged woman seemed to ignore their words and continued eating with her head down.

A few seconds later, a man entered the Dining Hall and handed a folder to Igor before quickly leaving without looking back.

Igor opened it and saw an illustrated list of material needs. In addition to common resources, it also included spirits, heritage creations, mechanical parts, and even populations of different species. He raised an eyebrow; just from this list, he could deduce what high-value items were present in the Senlo wasteland.

“I’m done eating,” Harvey said, picking up his tray. “I’m going to have a smoke and then head back.”

Igor responded, “There are smoke detectors everywhere here. You can’t even smoke in the restroom, right?”

“I found a place without detectors, and it’s also exposed to sunlight,” the necromancer said with words that didn’t match his identity. “I want to take Alice to get some sun, we’re both a bit calcium-deficient.”

“I’m going too!” Ashe quickly swallowed his remaining food.

“Are you going to smoke too?” Igor frowned, looking at Ashe.

“I want to get some sun as well!” Ashe replied. “I’ll leave the task of bringing back food for Tamashi up to you!”

“It was me the last time and the time before that. You just don’t want to bring the food…”

Tamashi didn’t want to eat in the Dining Hall, not because he couldn’t stand the atmosphere, but for religious reasons – he said that Raven Annihilation followers couldn’t eat with others.

He didn’t elaborate, but Ashe and the others imagined several reasons: ‘Refusing to socialize with outsiders enhances cult cohesion,’ ‘Eating would reveal vulnerabilities,’ ‘The original Raven Annihilation Demi-God was an introverted social anxiety case’… Whatever the reason, as long as it wasn’t an unbearable flaw, Ashe and his group were willing to accommodate Tamashi’s religious beliefs.

Since the charging area doesn’t offer delivery services, they had to pack their own meals. Ashe never volunteered to bring the food, not just because of his laziness, but also because he enjoyed watching the Con Artist carefully arrange meals in the containers, making them look neat and pleasing.

For some reason, this scene always amused Ashe. He also wanted Igor to be the one bringing the food, but clearly, the Con Artist wouldn’t indulge the Cult Leader’s little whims.

Ashe and Harvey left the Dining Hall and took an elevator, joining a group of uniformly dressed disciples inside. They stood silently as Harvey pressed the button for the 95th floor.

A few minutes later, as Ashe stepped out of the elevator, he started taking deep breaths, leaning against the wall. Harvey gave him a puzzled look and asked, “Did someone fart in there?”

“No, I wasn’t holding my breath,” Ashe replied, waving his hand. “But didn’t you feel suffocated? Being in that cramped elevator with them… I can handle a few seconds, but staying in there for a few minutes was unbearable.”

“Suffocated?” Harvey gestured for him to follow, adding, “What’s so suffocating about it? Just imagine they’re all corpses.”

“If they were corpses, I wouldn’t mind,” Ashe sighed. “But the problem is, they’re people, and yet…”

“And yet, they no longer want to be human,” Harvey said impatiently, lighting a catnip cigarette and speaking with a tone that indicated how familiar he was with the feeling.

The religions like the Four Pillars Cult, Raven Annihilation, and Tribulation Fire all had aspects that seemed inhuman, but they were still within a realm that Ashe could understand, allowing him to assimilate quickly into the Land of Senlo. It wasn’t until he encountered the Transcendence Temple that he realized he would always remain an outsider.

As the main cult of the Qinyi Alliance, the Transcendence Temple is seen as an extremely lawful and good force. This is evident from its established rules for receiving traveling merchants and traders, earning it the trust of many factions. It’s worth mentioning that the Tribulation Fire Temple, in the past, positioned itself as a villainous faction that specialized in robbing travelers, and nobody wanted to trade with them.

However, despite being recognized as an orderly force, the Transcendence Temple’s philosophy is extremely radical: transcendental consciousness.

What does this mean? The Transcendent Demi-God believes that intelligence and consciousness are not inherently linked. In fact, consciousness is seen as a constraint on intelligent creatures. If they want to evolve into a more advanced species, they must surpass consciousness and shed their sense of self.

At first glance, this may sound nonsensical, but they have a coherent logical system: When sorcerers learn any craft or skill, they depend on consciousness to actively learn and digest it. However, once they fully master a skill, they need to discard consciousness to perform it better. In the realm of art, a musician doesn’t think about which note to play next but plays purely by feeling. In combat, a swordsman doesn’t deliberate on where to strike next; in the blink of an eye during a duel, the thought process is completed even before the consciousness forms the idea.

The Transcendent Cult believes that consciousness is like a tutorial in a video game, a baby walker, or a product manual. It is a phase that intelligent creatures must go through, but only a phase.

While consciousness can lead to intelligence, intelligence does not require consciousness. Once intelligence is initially established, consciousness becomes a burden. Those distractions, desires, cravings, and emotions are obstacles that prevent intelligent creatures from further advancement.

The ideal of the Transcendent Cult is for everyone to shed their self, transcend consciousness, and evolve into more intelligent entities.

Although this ideal seems far-fetched, the Land of Senlo has seen many such outlandish ideals, so it’s not lacking in this one.

In theory, such an avant-garde ideal would quickly be swallowed up by the competitive wasteland. However, the Transcendent Cult found its perfect utopia – the intact Gray Fox Divine Era building.

In this building, there exists an intelligent computing hub. By connecting one’s consciousness to the hub, communication between individuals can occur without words, accurately conveying thoughts directly to others. Moreover, no matter what issue you encounter, you can seek assistance from the hub, which will immediately provide a solution.

Ashe and his companions speculated that this building might have originally served the hospitality industry, perhaps as a hotel or serviced apartments, with the intelligent computing hub functioning as a butler system. However, in the wasteland era, the intelligent computing hub became a great vessel for transcendental consciousness.

The concept of the Transcendent Cult is straightforward: they encourage all followers to connect with the intelligent computing hub, gradually diminishing the influence of self-awareness and entrusting all actions to the control of the intelligent hub until the self completely dissolves. In this manner, they can transcend the constraints of consciousness and elevate their intelligence to a new level, even without connecting to the computing hub.

To achieve this goal, they equip themselves with prosthesis attachments and engrave lightning runes to allow the computing hub to have more profound control over them-technically, the hub is not supposed to control living beings, but since they aren’t “legal citizens,” this disadvantage surprisingly becomes a loophole to bypass safety restrictions.

This is why Ashe feels such oppressive tension in the Dining Hall and the elevator. The Transcendence followers may look human and feel human, but internally, they’re gradually becoming something inhuman.

Because of this, all Transcendence followers can be perceived as a collective entity. Every person they meet could potentially represent the cult. Even a dining hall worker is qualified to discuss large deals worth thousands of gold coins with them. Followers are merely vessels for the intelligent hub, and all significant actions are executed upon the hub’s decisions.

However, the intelligent hub also becomes a shackle for the Transcendence Temple. Since all followers must stay within the building to connect to the hub, they cannot leave, effectively binding the cult to the building. Unless a true pioneer of evolution emerges, the Transcendent Cult remains merely a fanciful idea of a few generations.

Suddenly, Ashe squinted, realizing he had stepped into an indoor meadow, with what appeared to be a blazing sun overhead.

“The sun is fake,” Harvey said, lighting his catnip cigarette. He retrieved a coffin from his Spatial Card and called Alice to wake up. “But the sunlight is real. It seems to be reflected from the surface, or it could be a light spell Miracle… I don’t really understand these things.”

Ashe took a deep breath of the refreshing air, looking at the lush green grass and feeling the gentle sunlight caress his face. He exclaimed excitedly, “I’m going down to get Igor and Tamashi!”

“Why?” Harvey asked.

“Why not? With such a lovely place, you should’ve told us earlier instead of hogging it all to yourself!”

“What I find good, you all might not,” Harvey said, sitting under the shade of a tree, as Alice gathered her dress and sat beside him. “And what you all find good, I might not.”

Ashe blinked. “Speaking in circles isn’t like you. Have you picked up bad habits from Igor?”

“Do I need to learn from him?” Harvey exhaled a smoke ring. “But you-have you picked up any bad habits from him?”

“What are you really getting at?” Ashe was puzzled.

“Do you trust Igor?” the necromancer asked seriously. “Who is he to you, really?”